The Visit
by missgolightly
Summary: Harry, Ginny, and the kids make a trip to see Dudley and his family one afternoon.  Set after the epilogue  obviously  and features lots of children interacting.  I'm terrible at titles, by the by, so I apologize for that.  Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, as you should well know. I just really, really enjoy writing James II and dad!Harry. Enjoy!**

"I don't see why we have to walk."

"Because," Harry said, pointing to a spot a few dozen yards behind them. Ginny was there, settling down a young, red-headed girl. "We apparated there. And the house is up there."

"Why couldn't we just apparate there?" James said, pointing to the dark bricked house. "It'd be easier."

"It would also be rude." He ushered Albus along, who had stopped to poke at a caterpillar on the asphalt. "People don't just apparate on our doorsteps, do they?"

"Teddy would, I bet."

"Yes, well, Teddy's a bit too much like his mother to be trusted to walking and not falling."

Harry stopped to tie his shoe and the two boys stopped in front of him;Albus, fiddling with his glasses, and James, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Don't see why we go anyway. That house is awful."

"It is not, James, and we go because it's our family."

He scoffed. "Family or not, it's the worst."

"No, what's 'the worst' is your attitude. You're being disrespectful."

"No, what's the worst is your attitude, you're being disrespectful," James mocked, his tone high and sing-song. Harry shot him a look of warning as Ginny walked up.

"Mummy, James is being dispekfull."

"He often is, Allie."

"Mu-um!"

"Gin, we promised."

"Oh, alright," she said reluctantly. She took her son's glasses, which he had already snapped in half, and with a swish of her wand, repaired the frames. She gave the glasses back to him, smiling when he put them on. "You look so handsome with glasses, _Al_."

His cheeks and ears burned as he grinned sheepishly.

"Well, I think he looks like a git."

"We thank you for your input." Harry's voice was nearly dangerous as his eldest son smirked at his bespectacled younger brother. Harry turned back to Albus and winked. "Don't listen to him, Al, he's just in a fit because you look smart and he doesn't."

"They're only saying that 'cos they have to."

"James Sirius Po-"

"In fact!" James spoke over his father's voice, giddy to be tormenting his brother. "In fact, I saw Mum crying the other night! When I asked her what was wrong, she didn't answer. She just kept saying 'I have the ugliest son in the whole, wide world'…"

Albus' face twisted in horror and he looked up at his parents. "I-is that true?"

James cackled with delight and ran up the sidewalk, Lily toddling after him and clapping her hands. Harry let out a few half-hearted bellows at his son, but gave up when they reached the brick house at the end of the street. He turned to his wife and sighed. "Exactly whose raising are we paying for right now?"

"You did name him after your father. And Godfather."

"I really should have thought about that," he said, running his hand over his hair. "Damn nobility."

Ginny smoothed her hand over auburn hair and Harry took his son's hand into his own.

"Did you really, though, Mummy?"

"Maybe I was crying about him," Ginny said wistfully. "He doesn't know."

Al smiled and put his head against her hip, swinging his father's arm back and forth, his free hand fidgeting with the sides of his glasses. Ginny, almost unconsciously, pulled his hand away reproachfully, and the three began walking towards the brick house.

James was already sitting on the steps, Lily jabbering away beside him. His chin in his hands, his jaw slack, he looked up at his parents. "How long are we going to be here?"

"As long as it takes for you to get a happy attitude," Ginny snarled, picking Lily off the steps and tightening her hair elastics. "You are seven and you act like you're seventeen. The world is not out to get you, little boy, so please keep your snide remarks to yourself."

Harry put a hand on James' shoulder and a finger in his face. He eerily reminded himself of Uncle Vernon on these rare occasions. "Mind yourself."

"Please. Mr. Potter. I know my business." James shrugged his dad's hand away and ran up the porch to the doorbell. He rang it aggressively, pushing the button so hard Harry thought his finger might break.

"What is it with our children and Muggle things?" Ginny whispered, more to herself than to anyone else.

The door opened and a thin, dark-haired woman in a sweatsuit opened the door. "Oh, you're here! Come in, come in."

Ginny and Harry lead the children inside as the woman shut the door behind them. She hugged Harry and kissed Ginny on the cheek. "How was your trip? Are you hungry?"

"No, we ate before we came-"

"Well, you must be starving by now! I've just started cooking. I'll throw in some extra for you," She moved around them and towards the kitchen. "Go, sit down! Dudley's in the back with the girls, I'll fetch him."


	2. Chapter 2

The woman opened the back door and yelled as the Potters made their way into the sitting room. Ginny hoisted Lily onto her lap and Albus sat smushed between his parents on the tiny, burgundy sofa. James leaned on the arm of the couch, trying to scuttle his seat onto it, which earned him a sharp glance from his mother.

"Okay, okay, girls. We're done. Go wash up."

A large man walked into the sitting room, two young girls hanging onto his arms. He pried them off and they ran past the sofa and upstairs, bouncing curls and giggling voices. The man wiped his hands on his pantlegs and held one out to Harry. "Good to see you lot. How've you been?"

"We've been fine. You?" Harry replied as Dudley shook his hand vigorously.

"Wonderful," Dudley laughed. He passed his eyes over the children gathered on the sofa and goggled. "Good Lord, they're huge!"

He took James' face gently in his hand to get a good look at him, and the surprise on his face was more than noticeable.

"Gracious, you look just like your father."

James stuck his tongue out at Dudley and made a loud raspberry. Ginny popped him on the back of the head.

"No, no, it's alright. 'Spose I wouldn't want some strange bloke grabbing at my face, either." Dudley sat down in the armchair across the coffee table. "They are getting big, though."

"Well, yours aren't exactly small, are they?" Harry said, taking a tea cup from the woman. She handed a cup over to Ginny and perched on Dudley's chair. Harry took a sip from the pale blue china and tried to hide his expression. He put the cup down, hoping she wouldn't offer any of that tea to his kids, lest they ask her _what was this, badger piss?_. He took a biscuit off the plate instead. "How old are the girls now?"

"Six," Dudley groaned. "They've gotten to where they do this thing. They'll pretend to be the other-"

"-Like Abigail will pretend to be Annabelle, and vice versa-"

"-Marianne can always tell them apart, but I can't."

"Birthmarks," Ginny said suddenly.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Birthmarks," Ginny repeated, adjusting Lily on her lap. "I had twin brothers, and they did the same thing. Dad could tell the difference because George had a mole on his ear. So if the girls have any differentiating moles or birthmarks, that can help."

"You know," Marianne started, taking two biscuits from the tray, "Abby does have that freckle above her eyebrow."

"The one I thought was dirt?"

Marianne nodded.

"That could work. Easy enough to remember."

The conversation was interrupted by the loud clamboring of two girls barreling down the stairs.

"They are stairs! Not a damned jungle gym!" Dudley boomed at the girls. He turned to Harry. "Do you have this problem at your house, or is it just us?"

"We don't have stairs, mate."

"No. No, I guess you wouldn't," he said awkwardly.

Harry stared at him quizzically. "What do you mean by-"

"Girls, why don't you take these three upstairs?" Marianne interjected. "They look positively bored to tears."

At the word 'play', James came alive and dashed up the stairs. Albus took a little coaxing, but when Ginny was able to convince him, he took Lily's hand and together they climbed upstairs, the sandy-headed twins chattering lively behind them.

Once out of earshot, his eyes following the group upstairs, Dudley turned to Harry. "When do you know?"

"Know? Know what?"

"Know if…you know."

"No, I'm afraid I don't."

Dudley's voice was barely above a whisper. Harry was unsure if his cousin was quiet out of fear or habit. "Magic."

"Oh," Harry muttered.

Dudley with magical children—the thought had never occured to him, and even if it had, he'd have assumed Vernon's genes would have squashed out the Evans'. He nearly choked on his biscuit.

"Well," Ginny offered, setting her saucer down on the coffee table and giving Harry a few good whacks between the shoulder blades, "Usually about this age is when you see it. Allie—excuse me, _Al. _I have to get used to saying that.—just started getting regular about it earlier this year."

"How though?" Marianne asked, her eyes both worried and curious.

"It's hard to say. Just sort of unexplained, unusual things. Mainly when they get angry or provoked."

**-xxxxx-**

"Hold hands!"

Albus grabbed his brother's hand.

"Not us, you git! Them!" James nodded to Abby and Annie. "Hold hands, you two."

The two girls, exchanging confused glances, cautiously grasped each other's hands. "Now what?"

"Now say 'come play with us'."

"Why?"

"Just do it."

As they recited their line, James fell to the floor, howling with laughter. Lily looked up from her toy in the corner and started laughing, too, if only because her big brother did so first.

"Why is that so funny?" Annie scoffed, yanking her hand away and looking curiously at the dark-headed boy on the floor.

"He saw it in a Muggle movie we weren't 'posed to watch," Albus said, in a moment of dictional clarity.

"What's Muggle?"

James sat up and smirked at his cousins. "You. You lot are Muggles."

Abby, still unsure what the word meant, obviously understood it to be unpleasant. "Well, what are you?" she fired back. "Besides a prat?"

James rolled his head back and chuckled with light-hearted menace. "Oh, ho, ho. Good one. No, I am a wizard."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Where's your magic wand then?"

"Don't have one yet," James drawled. "I'll get one in a few years, though."

"Well, I don't think you're a wizard," Annie added matter-of-factly. "I think you're lying."

"Well, I'm not."

"Prove it then!"

Abby stood with her hip out, her arms crossed, sure she had ended the duel. But James rose and defiantly grinned. He closed his eyes, tight, and scrunched up his face. A rattling noise began to bounce around the room, and the two girls looked around for its source as Al joined his sister in the corner, his eyes mashed closed and his hands over his ears. James remained still, a slightly smug look plastered on his concentrated face.

"There!" Annie yelled. "The pan!"

The little, plastic yellow pan on the play stove was shaking and smoking, steam rising from it. Abby walked to it carefully and peered over at it. She gasped. "It's boiling! The water is boiling!"

"Daddy said no, James! He said!" Albus piped from the corner.

"Oh, alright, you babies." James relaxed his face and the rattling ceased immediately. "Better now?"

Annie and Abby looked at James in awe. "How did you do that?"

"Toldja I'm a wizard," he said. He grabbed a crayola from the table. "Watch this."


	3. Chapter 3

"I don't really care, one way or another, of course," Dudley said, taking a drink from his bottle of beer. "Marianne's the one who brought it up, actually, so she doesn't care, either, but-"

"-Vernon," Harry said simply, and he and Dudley shared a knowing smile.

Ginny and Marianne could be heard moving about in the kitchen. Marianne had brought he and Dudley both Muggle beer and Harry had never tasted anything less appealing in his life. He set it on his knee and kept a hold of it, so as to have something to occupy his hands.

"Exactly. He'd go completely mental if Annie or Abby either one were…you know. Like you."

"Yeah," grunted Harry, leaning down to scratch his ankle. "Then again, if Dudders had a wizard kid, it might not be so bad."

Dudley rolled his eyes. "Please. I told him you were coming down to visit and he nearly had an aneurysm."

Harry snickered and unwittingly took a swig from his beer. He instantly regretted it, spitting the beer back into the bottle and coughing. "How, uh, how are they, by the way?"

"Mum and Dad?"

Harry nodded.

"Oh, they're good, good. Dad's finally retired and Mum's started a-"

"Flower thing, yeah. She sent Gin and me this absolutely-"

"-gorgeous vase," Ginny finished, coming in with Marianne and sitting beside Harry. Her hand on the back of his neck drove home the message he would likely pay for his insolence in regards to the-most-hideous-vase-in-the-world-so-don't-ever-mention-that-vase-again-because-I'm-throwing-it-out. Ginny beamed at Dudley. "I sent her a thank you and a couple of pictures of the kids, but would you…"

"Yeah, I'll tell her," Dudley said easily. It was an understood, unspoken possibility that Vernon would throw away anything addressed from 'the Potters'. "In case she doesn't see it."

"Thank you."

"Not a problem."

Harry cleared his throat. "If they are, though, dud, you should get a letter in the mail-"

"_Muuuuuum!_ James is being weird!"

"That's Abigail," Marianne exhaled, standing up. "I'll go-"

Harry motioned her to sit down again. "No, I'll go. It's my kid being weird, after all."

He stood and made his way across the living room, bounding up the steps and into the girls' bedroom. He opened the door in time to see James move his hands quickly behind his back. He cheesed up at Harry. "Why, hello, Father. Such a pleasure to see you. We were just playing."

"Mhm," Harry nodded. "What've you got behind your back?"

"Nothing."

"It's a crayon!" Annie shouted, pointing at her cousin. "He kept making it melt and then turn back! And he won't tell us how and when we asked him, he said we had to take a secret oath and-and then he told us if we said anything, Voldingard would eat our souls!"

Harry scowled at James, who smiled nervously. "Really? Just playing?"

"It..it was harmless fun, Dad, honest."

"You don't sound so sure of yourself."

"My voice must be playing tricks on your ears, 'cos I'm totally confident right now."

Harry groaned and grabbed James up by the sleeve of his jumper, dragging him into the hallway. The twins and Albus looked out the doorway, fear mingling with mild satisfaction as his having been busted.

Harry stood atop the stairs and fixed his son with his sternest look. James quickly began to waver under the intensity of the look. "Oh, come on, Dad, it wasn't that bad."

"They are six, James. Six. And who the Hell is Voldingard?"

"They're six, Dad. Six," James retorted. "They can't say words right. I said Voldemort, they said Voldingard or whatever."

"This mocking thing has got to stop," Harry pulled his hand over his face. "You're practically insufferable sometimes."

"Well, look on the bright side," James offered as he held out his arms and grinned. "At least I didn't set their hair on fire like last time!"

"Yes. From flaming hair to Voldemort. You're just improving by leaps and bounds." Harry was irritated and sarcastic, but he couldn't help the smile that creeped onto his face.

He marched James downstairs and Marianne tilted her head at Ginny. "Leaving already?"

"I'm not sure…Harry?"

"Yes," he said, sitting James on the couch by pushing on his shoulders. "Sorry we can't stay."

"Oh, no problem. You're a busy guy," Dudley said. He stood up and gathered the beer bottles as Ginny went upstairs to get the others. "Good to see you, though, mate."

"You, too," Harry said, standing awkwardly at the foot of the stairs. He and his cousin stood in silence for a moment before Dudley awkwardly walked into the kitchen to throw away the bottles. Ginny came down the stairs holding both children and steaming. "Al tell you what happened, then?"

"Remind me that I love my son and that I don't want to kill him."

"You love your son and you don't want to kill him."

"With a little more conviction, please."

"Could say the same to you," Harry mumbled under his breath as Dudley and Marianne walked back in. "Well, guess we're leaving now. Thanks for having us over."

"Anytime!" Marianne chippered. "We'll see you to the door."

The Potters walked stiffly to the door and the Dursleys followed suit. Dudley shook Harry's hand again. "We'll be around, yeah?"

"Yeah," he said. "Let us know if…you know."

"Will do."

They shut the door and Harry and his family began walking back towards the road. The kids ran up ahead on the sidewalk while the parents lagged behind.

"You got in trouble," Albus boasted, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Toldja you would!"

"Yeah, well, we got to leave early, didn't we?" James smirked. "My madness always has a method, little brother. Always."


End file.
